Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

This hip-hop heavy and soul-drenched soundtrack perfectly suits the new legal thriller starring Matthew McConaughey. Opening with bluesman Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s cautionary “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City,” the collections ranges from the title track’s edgy rap to the old-school swing of Erik B. & Rakim’s classic “Don’t Sweat the Technique.” Best of all is the closing “California Soul,” which cleverly remixes ’60s jazz singer Marlena Shaw’s sunny original with gangsta rapper Ya Boy’s hustling rhymes.

Since it debuted in 2002, American Idol has transformed pop’s cultural landscape, leading a slew of reality TV shows and launching dozens of top-selling music careers. The popular singing competition has had its share of detractors, including Usher and Elton John who, despite being mentors on the show, bemoaned its obsessive star-making focus. Once, when the show’s winning contestants were marching their way up the pop charts, Rolling Stone infamously dubbed them the “karaoke death squad.” Like it or not, Idol has showcased some talented singers over the years, including Carrie Underwood and Ruben Studdard. With a revamped season, featuring new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler joining ...

Many know Rick Springfield for his 1981 chart-topper “Jesse’s Girl,” but he’s equally as famous for his role as playboy doctor Noah Drake on General Hospital. With this two-CD set, the Australian singer returns to his musical roots, serving up a collection of his biggest pop hits. The songs range from romantic ballads like “Affair of the Heart” to such energetic numbers as “Love Somebody.” Steeped in mainstream pop and rock, the compilation proves that the TV star also had a knack for crafting catchy radio hits.

She’s the daughter of famed poet Miller Williams, so it’s no surprise Lucinda Williams has a way with words. In 1999, her Car Wheels on a Gravel Road won a Grammy in 1999 and Time named her America’s best songwriter a few years later. But Williams is also a singer of rare sensuality. Her latest album—the first since wedding record executive Tom Overby—showcases her gift for literate lyrics with a sultry mix of rock, blues and country songs. As a bonus, Elvis Costello provides spirited guitars on “Seeing Black.”

The complicated girl is all grown up. More than a decade after she arrived as the perfect punk foil to pop princess Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne is fully transformed. Gone are the tank tops, sneakers and neckties of her early days, replaced by high heels, her own perfume and dresses from her Abbey Dawn clothing line. She’s even now a divorcee, her marriage to Sum 41 rocker Deryck Whibley having officially ended last November. All of those changes are reflected on Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne’s fourth album, her edgy, angsty sound largely supplanted by softer pop and mellow balladry. The cover depicts the Canadian singer in a rose-petal dress, draped over a grand piano. Inside, the music is raw ...

The man famous for singing about a rocket launcher has never shied away from trouble spots. In 2009, the music legend visited Afghanistan to see his doctor-brother, who serves with the Canadian Forces. The trip resulted in the gypsy-jazz instrumental “Comets of Kandahar” and “Each One Lost,” a moving, hymn-like tribute to fallen soldiers. Cockburn’s new album offers other delights, including the humorous “Called Me Back” and the intriguing “Call Me Rose,” which imagines Richard Nixon reincarnated as a single mom.

Sexsmith’s songs have been covered by everyone from Rod Stewart to Michael Bublé. Now Michael has returned the favor, suggesting his producer Bob Rock to helm Sexsmith’s latest album. The results are stunning, with upbeat arrangements and bright sounds on romantic numbers like “Heavenly” and the gorgeous “Love Shines.” The album also features “Michael and His Dad,” a bittersweet song that recalls Sexsmith’s days searching for work, with his toddler son in tow. Happily, for the celebrated artist, those days are long gone.

Harry Connick Jr. is a genuine renaissance man, an award-winning singer, songwriter and actor who also plays piano and is a respected composer, arranger and bandleader. A childhood prodigy, Connick learned the keyboards at three, played publicly at six and made his recording debut with a jazz band at 10. Just a decade later, he released his self-titled solo debut album and won his first Grammy Award two years later for his work on the soundtrack to the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. As an actor, Connick has been equally versatile, playing a sympathetic leading man in Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock and a serial killer in Copycat with Sigourney...

She’s known as the Coal Miner’s Daughter, also the name of her best-selling autobiography and an Oscar-winning film about her life starring Sissy Spacek. An inspirational figure, Lynn broke down barriers in Nashville during the 1960s and ’70s, singing about sexism and women’s rights in popular country hits like “Rated ‘X’” and “The Pill.” This collection features those songs and others like the classic “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),” about no-good, philandering husbands.

Presley worried that his stint in the army had ruined his career. But this crucial album, recorded just two weeks after his discharge in March, 1960, put an end to those fears. A mix of doo-wop, gospel, blues and pop, it rebranded the former rocker as a mature singer with mass-market appeal. This two-CD set features hit singles recorded at the same session, including the ballad “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and the quasi operatic “It’s Now or Never,” as well as his followup album Something for Everybody. Essential Elvis.